Take a good look at that guy. Most likely you’ll find him hiding under a table. He’s state Sen. Vincent J. Polistina (D), champion of carcinogens in the New Jersey Lege. If you still find yourself breathing secondhand smoke in Atlantic City casinos, you’ll have Polistina to thank. After paying extensive lip service to a total smoking ban, Polistina finked out at the last minute, refusing to cast a crucial committee vote that would have advanced the fatwa to the floor of the Lege. Bastard.
We’ll defer to casino dealer Pete Naccarrelli, “Vince Polistina has revealed himself to be untrustworthy. After coming to our first rally in August 2021, recruiting co-sponsors to S264 and A2151, speaking out on our behalf at every turn, he’s now copying and pasting casino executive talking points and attempting to present them as a credible solution. It’s shameful and disgusting. He has now chosen to be a front for the casinos rather than a backstop for his constituents. Don’t be fooled, he isn’t sticking up for us to protect our health.” We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.
State Sen. Joseph Vitale (D) piled on, telling Politico, “There were several co-sponsors who have decided to take their names off the bill for reasons that are unknown to me. Other than that I’ve heard from one or two members, particularly on the other side of the aisle, that they wanted to consider some of the amendments being offered by the industry.” He added, “They’re the same idiotic ideas that have been floated for years.” Big Gaming hasn’t deigned to share its exact ideas with the general public but we’ve got a pretty good idea.
Polistina’s stalking-horse “compromise” is a mixture of delay and bullshit. Smoking in slot areas would be get a “gradual” phase-out and the dreaded smoking chambers “would require employees to volunteer to work in the areas.” Like any sane person is going to do that. As CEASE said of the feckless Polistina, “He was supposed to be there for us when the rubber met the road. Instead, he’s MIA.” Or, more accurately, he’s a sock puppet for the Casino Association of New Jersey‘s Mark Giannantonio, a former Columbia Sussex hatchet man. (ColSux got run out of the Boardwalk but Giannantonio was left behind as an ongoing reminder.)
Undeterred by Vitale’s yanking of the smoking ban from the legislative agenda, CEASE and its allies—which include the UAW—are pursuing a two-track strategy. One prong is to urge senate President Nicholas Scutari (D) to bypass the committee and bring the bill to the floor for a full vote, “Given the stagnation around the smoke-free casinos proposal in committee.” (Heh.) The other tine in the fork is to form a PAC to strike back at the fainthearted likes of Polistina. If money talks, Big Labor can play that game too.
The cherry on the smoky sundae came in the form of civil disobedience. When Vitale pulled the bill from Senate Health Committee consideration, protesters lit cigarettes in the room, giving legislative turncoats a taste of their own patent medicine. As union regional director Daniel Vicente said, “We’re not allowed to smoke in your workplace, but you’re allowed to smoke in ours … We wanted to know if it’s OK if we did that in their workplace. They said it was inappropriate and not allowed here.” Clean-air advocate Lamont White added, “Two days ago, I was on a table with two guys smoking cigars. It’s horrible. Your eyes start burning. My throat gets raw and I don’t want to breathe.”
The prostest quickly went viral on the news wires. Nor could CANJ resist gloating at workers’ expense. It issued an oleaginous statement that read, in part, “We look forward to continuing this dialogue as we move forward, to find a compromise that will address the concerns of our employees without jeopardizing jobs and benefits to some of our most vulnerable citizens.” Malarkey. The bottom line is what CANJ doesn’t want to jeopardize. Cigarette buttheads like Polistina and CANJ need to go into the ashtray of history.
We don’t know if there was a roar of laughter from the crowd but we were rolling in the aisles after reading about the groundbreaking for the replacement for Diamond Jacks Casino in Bossier City. “It’s going to have a quality and energy that when you walk into this property you’ll feel like you’re in a premier casino and resort in the top gaming markets, including Las Vegas,” said Jon Cordish, he of the eponymous companies. Somehow, Daddy’s newest casino is going to rival the “premier” properties of Sin City … on a $270 million budget. That’s rich. Maybe Junior fooled the folks who have never been to Vegas but others won’t be snowed. Don’t get us wrong: We’re glad Diamond Jacks is being reinvented and Cordish is just the firm to do it. After all, it’s been quite successful in Maryland and Philadelphia. Also, the market could use some fresh blood. Cordish the Younger promised that the new casino would be “game-changing and set a new standard in the market.” Bossier City Mayor Thomas Chandler was more circumspect, saying the Live-branded hangout would be “the largest venture that has happened in our area in a long time.” It’s expected to debut in 2025.
Sports betting numbers from October in Illinois are in and they’re 10% up from last year. Revenue was $113 million, with DraftKings garnering the largest share of handle and encroaching heavily upon FanDuel‘s market share. The latter remained first at $43.5 million, followed by DraftKings at $40 million. BetRivers won $10 million. Much further back were BetMGM ($5 million) and Caesars Sportsbook ($4 million). Barstool Sports and Fanatics split the remainder.
Which is the real iteration of the Las Vegas Raiders? Is it the ball-hawking squad that scored 49 unanswered points last night, en route to a franchise-record 63-21 obliteration of the Los Angeles Chargers? Or was it the stumblebums who couldn’t score a single point against the Minnesota Vikings? That Raider nadir was the culmination of an underachieving offense, the team’s Achilles heel this season. At least the Silver & Black finally delivered some high-scoring solace to long-suffering fans at Allegiant Stadium. They came against a Los Angeles unit led by a quarterback unpromisingly named Stick (and whose play was appropriately wooden). Defensive star Maxx Crosby told it like it was before the game, when he acknowledged that the Raiders would have to run the table the rest of the way to have an outside shot at the playoffs. Unfortunately it’s also a scenario that requires the rest of the AFC to roll over and play dead. At least the remaining Raider schedule cossets one, maybe two upset victories. Three would be a true Christmas miracle.
Jottings: Wednesday saw the debut of mega-expensive megaresort Fontainebleau Las Vegas and there’s a lot of it. 3,644 rooms, 1,300 slots, 128 tables, 36 bars and restaurants, and 7,000-plus employees, to say nothing of $300/night ADRs. It’s a huge shot in the arm to the Las Vegas economy and a high-risk crap shoot for owner Jeffrey Soffer. We’ve not read of any opening-night celebrity sightings but maybe those will come later … Hard Rock International is going vertical on its Bristol, Virginia casino and is ahead of schedule. When complete, it will offer 303 hotel rooms, 1,500 slots (more than Fontainebleau) and 75 table games. Never let it be said that Hard Rock thinks small … Hard Rock is also hard at work in Bakersfield on the first phase of Hard Rock Tejon, which will feature 3,000 (!) slots and 48 table games. No word on whether Bakersfield’s own Kevin McCarthy will be a casino greeter when the place opens in autumn 2025 … After a lengthy ordeal, MGM Resorts International is finally able to start work on its Osaka resort. Panasonic, Kansai Electric and West Japan Railway are minority partners in the project, which took five and a half years from casino legalization in Japan to site prep … Fanatics Sportsbook has gone live in Connecticut. The apparel company’s capture of the Nutmeg State license is viewed by some as a setback to rival ESPN Bet … $275 million is being invested in an expansion of Harrah’s Cherokee Valley, one that will add 296 hotel rooms and 1,700 parking spaces. The Murphy, North Carolina casino has been a significant success for manager Caesars Entertainment and for the Cherokee tribe.
Lots of videos online about Fontainebleau and the inside of the property looks great. Your boss Anthony Curtis had an interesting observation saying that there is only only place where you can sit at a bar and play video and that is at the Tavern. The pool area is 8 acres in size and once it gets warmer in March it should do well.